


Eight Bit Heart

by BlossomingDia



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - College/University, Car Accidents, Character Death, Depression, Family, Gaming, Horror, Implied Relationships, M/M, Murder, Obsession, Some Relationships are Within a Game, Suicide, Violence, dating sims, fictional characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 09:31:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 13,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19373965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlossomingDia/pseuds/BlossomingDia
Summary: Jisung hates Dating Sims, but encountering a cute boy in the game might change his mind completely...





	1. Game On

There was a knock at the door and blearily Jisung opened his eyes in time to see Jaemin to come through the door with a bag and huge grin on his face. “I see you’re still feeling sorry for yourself!” He said cheerfully as Jisung batted at him “I brought you some stuff so you can get back on your feet as soon as possible. Now come eat this soup you brat!” 

Sitting up, he accepted the Styrofoam cup of soup and began to sip at it with a grimace at the flavour which earned a laugh from Jaemin who watched him closely. “OK so, I got you some throat lozenges, some medicine that the pharmacist recommended… and this!” He thrust the box towards the younger with a proud grin on his face as he did so and Jisung examined it closer with the a grown as he took in the bright packaging adorned with stars and hearts and cute cartoony looking characters surrounding the title which proclaimed that it was ‘DREAM BOYS!!’.

“What is that?” 

“I know that you like to play games when you’re not feeling great, so I stopped by the store and to be honest there was nothing that you didn’t already have. So, I checked the preowned section and there wasn’t much there except for this!” He thrust the game forwards again “I asked the guy at the counter about it and he said that it’s a good game if you like that kind of thing…”

“What kind of thing?” Jisung fired back apprehensively.

“…Dating sims?”

“Hyung you know I hate dating sims!” 

“I know! I figured that you could at least try it and if you don’t like it then I could just give it to Jeno or something… He’s writing his thesis on dating sims y’know?”

“I know hyung, you tell me every time that you come here.” The younger sighed.

He pulled the box from Jaemin’s grasp and flipped it over to read the description, cringing at the cutesy description of the game before setting it to the side and turning back to Jaemin who had risen to his feet again “I gotta go now, I’ve got class in an hour. Oh! Professor Kim also asked me to remind you that you need to submit your proposal for your dissertation project as soon as you come back, or by the end of the week or else you’re not gonna have time to finish it.”

The man sighed again “If you see him, can you tell him that I’ll get the proposal to him as soon as possible?”

“Yep! Gotta go now, bye Jisung!” 

He raised a hand to bid goodbye to his friend and slumped back on the bed with a furrowed brow as he stared up at the ceiling in defeat. He had no idea what to do his project on. Not a clue. He didn’t even want to think about it. Glancing around the room, he tried to look for something to distract his mind from the idea of his dissertation and snatched up the ‘DREAM BOYS!!’ box as soon as his eyes fell on it, slipping the disc into his game console and sitting in silence as the game loaded. Well, he thought, might as well get some use out of the crappy game.


	2. User Guide

He picked up the guide from inside of the box and idly flicked through the instructions as the game play tutorial auto played in the background, he’d played enough of them to know the game play mechanics and decided to turn to the page titled ‘Idols’ finding it looking glossy and appealing as it introduced its range of characters. There were a smattering of female idols on the first few pages, all cute and with big eyes that were made to charm men but he could only roll his eyes and flick onto the next page where the male idols were being introduced. Quickly, he scanned through the profiles:

Johnny was first, and was described as being an idol who had trained for years with an endless capacity for enthusiasm and a gentle almost parental manner about him. It advised gifts of fruits or other foods or cool looking clothes. Jisung hesitated on his profile and folded the corner slightly before flicking to the next idol – Taeyong. 

Taeyong was somewhat cool and aloof it said, but when he got close with someone the façade fell away to reveal someone caring and kind. It advised gifts of sweets and dates such as shopping or gaming. Jisung didn’t even spare his profile a glance before flicking to the next page and reading about the third male idol.

Renjun was the quiet, artsy type it said and would appreciate art supplies as gifts while dating him. It mentioned his love for movies and a certain unlockable café and informed him that while Renjun outwardly appeared pure and innocent he was devilish when the player got to know him. He stared at the picture of the boy and found his cheeks growing hot at the sight of his snaggletooth and birthmark. His hand lingered for a moment on the corner of the page before he flicked the page with a shake of his head. 

The next was Haechan with tanned skin and a devilish smile which matched with his depiction as being a joker who loved to tease his friends by being a bit bratty, which made him into a difficult person to date but gave the greatest payoff when the player came to see his sweet side. He liked games and dancing which had Jisung folding the corner of the page with a little smile on his face.

Jungwoo was super cute looking with a big grin in his portrait, and though the details of his likes were a little bit lacking, Jisung could appreciate his love for soccer and huge appetite which would make him one of the easiest idols to date in the game, since he would appreciate almost any gift. 

Doyoung was sarcastic and standoffish but still sweet and caring deep down, yet Jisung didn’t bother to read the rest of his profile after seeing his picture in all its creased brow, scowling glory. 

The final idol, with his own page, was Chenle. An innocent looking boy with a big smile and blonde hair. He was from China, the guide stated, and could easily be swayed with chocolate or ramen. He enjoyed playing videogames, football and cooking. He seemed like a sweet character, but Jisung paid him no mind and set the guide aside with it set on the smiling picture of Haechan before picking up his controller and turning to the screen to begin his game, secure in his choice of idol to date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this chapter was a little tedious but it was necessary to set up the characters in the game for the rest of the story. Anyways, let me know what you think!


	3. Heart Event

He had to admit, the game was actually quite good. He’d been playing it for over two hours, going through each rhythm tap game and the dancing games that required him to change his movements to follow the dancing and giving Haechan gifts every time he saw him, though every time he checked the little metre in his day planner he let out a sigh. One heart. Two hours of work had resulted in only one heart with Haechan and with every day that passed he could feel his annoyance mounting until he decided to put Haechan on the back burner and turned his attention to the sweet and gentle Johnny. 

His mind absently wandered back to the guide, pondering its instructions to ‘choose his path carefully as the game was responsive to choices’ as his character wandered into the practice room to earn experience through training, only for the screen to cut to black and reopen with the soft tinkle of music as the character approached Johnny who sat at the piano, playing quietly.

“Oh! Jisung!” he said with a grin “Come and sit with me for a bit.” 

His character moved and sat next to Johnny quietly to watch as his fingers danced gracefully across the keys, flowing between notes. A box appeared on the screen and for a moment Jisung debated between the two choices, eventually selecting “You’re good at that.”

Johnny smiled slightly and kept his eyes on the keys as he spoke “Thank you, I learned how to play from my mom when I was little… we had a piano in our living room and she used to sit me on her lap so she could move my hands…” His voice trailed off as his face became soft and saddened. 

“You must miss her a lot.”

“Yeah! Its been a long time since I last saw her, but its still worth it to be here with the others, and to be here with you…” There was a beat of silence as his character flushed and Johnny winked before standing and with a quiet word of dismissal left the room, cutting of heart event. When Jisung checked in his day planner he let out a happy grunt as he saw the two red hearts beside Johnny’s name. With a swell of triumph, he guided his character out of the room but paused when the screen cut to black and the music swelled again cutting to the image of a frantic looking Chenle walking up and down the hallway before stopping at the sight of his character. 

“Jisung!” He cried as he rushed over “Have you seen a necklace lying around anywhere?”

“No.”

“Oh my God! My mom’s gonna kill me! She gave me the necklace for my birthday and I’ve lost it…” 

The box appeared over the visage of Chenle’s tearful face and briefly, he considered selecting the option to help him find his necklace purely for how pitiful he looked but he steeled his resolve and selected the option “I hope you find it.” Before taking his character out of the hallway, leaving behind a sad looking Chenle. 

Funny, Jisung mused as he checked his day planner, they’d never really spoken and despite his dismissal, Chenle’s profile shone with two bright red hearts.


	4. Choose Your Own Ending

With a sigh of annoyance Jisung clicked through the dialogue and tried to cast his eyes away from the annoyed looking Johnny. “It’s not cool of you to lead people on, Jisung” he scolded “Haechan said that you were sweet talking him and then you just dropped him out of nowhere, and Chenle mentioned that you’re rude to him all the time!” the elder sighed as he sank down to take a seat on the sofa and scrubbed a hand over his face “I like you, you know that don’t you Jisung?”

“Yes.” He selected.

“Well, just because I like you doesn’t mean that I’ll stand by and watch you treat them like crap.” He stood from the sofa and walked to the door, lingering momentarily to glance back at Jisung’s character before exiting the room. Jisung slumped back onto his bed and pulled up his journal to check his progress. No hearts with Haechan. No hearts with Jungwoo. No hearts with Doyoung. Renjun’s solitary heart had turned black, along with Johnny and Taeyong’s. The only hearts that remained red were Chenle’s which shone tauntingly at him before a notification box popped onto the screen. 

‘You can restore friendship by making amends with idols that you may have wronged! Not every character will need you to fix issues extensively, so keep that it mind as you continue!’ 

With a sigh, he reached over to the instruction manual and flicked a few pages to settle on the profile of Chenle who grinned back at him with the bright declaration of his love for sweets and ramen and so with a box of chocolates selected he headed to find the young idol, finding him tucked away on the roof of the dormitory looking saddened. The screen cut to black and the music began to swell again as Jisung’s annoyance gradually rose.

“Oh. Hi Jisung.” Chenle said as he glanced up from the piece of paper in his lap.

“Hello.” He selected “What have you got there?”

“A letter from my mother, its nothing important really… You and Johnny hyung seemed really close at the fan sign earlier today!”

“Yeah, we’re interested in each other.”

Chenle’s face seemed to fall at his words and the boy couldn’t help but feel a stab of pain at how downtrodden he seemed as he let out a little “Oh…” and returned his gaze to his lap. 

“How did you find the fan sign?”

A beat of silence. 

“It seemed like everyone had fun. Though none of the fans seem to like me in the same way that they like the others… some of them even just walked straight past me to go and greet the others!” Another stab of sadness in his gut. “But it’s OK really! I know I’m not the best singer, or dancer, or visual, but as long as there is someone that likes me I’ll be happy to make them happy!”

Jisung anticipated the selection screen, though as quickly as it came it was gone again leaving his character silent as Chenle’s face seemed to fall. The elder idol stood and crumpled his letter in his palm and let it float to the floor without paying it any mind. He walked towards the door and paused briefly to cast a glance back at Jisung with a sad expression “I can tell by your expression that you’re thinking the same as every one else - that they don’t need me here – and I agree completely.” A look of bliss seemed to grace his face “I know what I have to do now, so thank you Jisung.” 

Silently, he left and the screen cut to black leaving Jisung alone to snatch up the letter from the ground and take off after Chenle, wondering what lay in store in the next event.


	5. Bad Ending

Jisung’s somewhat aimless search through the dorms was fruitless as every room seemed void of the young idol who had fled from him after their interaction and with his mind racing he began to contemplate what to do, opening his map to search for the little icon of Chenle which would display his location. Nothing. Lowering his map, he got ready to begin the search again but was instead faced by the ceasing of the music as a loud shriek erupted through the speakers and without his control his character took of sprinting into the small garden out to the back of the dorms being met immediately by the shape of Chenle swaying in an unnatural fashion as Taeyong vomited violently into the grass next to him.

His face was white with blue tinged lips and bulging eyes, and with a noose made of a tie he’d worn for an interview, he swayed peacefully in the slight breeze completely unaware to the chaos unravelling around him as the others clutched at each other in despair. With a focus on the gently swinging form of Chenle in the tree with the stool at his feet, the game displayed a ‘game over’ and began to roll the credits leaving a dumbfounded Jisung grasping for his laptop and looking up Chenle online with a new sense of desperation. With his character page displayed Jisung began to read:

‘Chenle is by far the easiest bachelor to court, given that he likes most gifts and is easy enough to keep happy – though the player must be aware that Chenle’s route has the most triggerable bad endings and despite his happy-go-lucky personality, this idol has problems that are explored greatly in his heart events. Keep in mind that some other bachelors influence his behaviour and attitude greatly namely, Johnny and Renjun. Players have yet to report reaching Chenle’s good route ending given the volume of his bad endings, though the developer has confirmed that he does have a good ending.’

The chiming of the sweet upbeat music dragged his attention away from his laptop and he turned back to the screen. ‘Would you like to start a new game?’ The game asked and with a solid resolve Jisung set the game to go through the tutorial so that he could return his attention to the laptop. He drew a pad of paper closer and took up the pen to begin to make notes on his favourite items, heart events and other information that would help him so that when the tutorial ended he would be ready. With a new sense of determination he guided his character over to the music room on the far side of the building and got ready to go through the first event on his new mission – to find Chenle’s good ending.


	6. Deleted File

Jisung heaved a sigh of relief as the screen cut to black and then opened back onto the scene of a worried Chenle pacing in the hallway before stopping to approach his character. “Jisung! Have you seen a necklace lying around anywhere?”

“No.”

“Oh my god! My mom’s gonna kill me! She gave me the necklace for my birthday and I’ve lost it…” With the visage of Chenle’s tearful face he was presented with the same choice as he’d previously had and without hesitation he chose to help him find the necklace, causing the screen to fade into a cut scene of the two avatars searching intently for the necklace before Jisung’s character let out a proclamation and stood straight with the necklace brandished in one hand as Chenle came running with a joyful expression. “You found it!” He shouted “Thank you so much Jisung! I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t helped me to find it!”

The cutscene showed Chenle’s face glowing in the setting sun, decorated with a huge grin and flushed cheeks that had Jisung flushing as he selected for his character to put the necklace back onto the boy and watched how the air between the two became tense and their gazes lingered on each other’s faces before Chenle seemed to snap out of it and allowed another big smile to grace his face. 

“I better go practice…” He whispered “I don’t want people to think of me as less than the others because I’ve not been a trainee as long!” 

With the finality of his words, he exited the courtyard and left Jisung alone with only a beep to remind him of his journal updating to subside his pounding heart. He pulled it up to check the progress and found a journal entry accompanied by two shining red hearts by Chenle’s profile which he opened and began to read the new entry: “Chenle cares deeply for his family – especially his mother. He treasures gifts given to him by his friends and family and will do anything to protect these gifts. He seems quick to form attachments and is sincere in his efforts to make people like him.”

With a raised eyebrow Jisung crossed the first point off the list on his notepad and set about finding the boy to invite him on an outing, instead bumping into Renjun who eyed him wearily as he engaged him in dialogue. Trying his best, he selected the most amicable dialogue options, only to be met with resistance from Renjun who eyed him warily. Eventually the two lapsed into silence and Renjun took it as his opportunity to speak up “I know that you’re trying it on with Chenle… after everything you did with Johnny and Haechan before I don’t trust you one little bit.” 

Jisung was left only raising an eyebrow as Renjun walked away from him and he immediately pulled up his game transcript to look through it. Strange, he thought, he’d never interacted with Johnny or Haechan in this new file, so how did Renjun know about it?


	7. Return to Save Point?

Checking his map for the little icon that showed Chenle’s whereabouts, Jisung walked out into the garden and braced himself to trigger the second heart event for the character but instead of the gentle romantic music, he was met with the sight of a very downtrodden Chenle who approached him. “Jisung! How’s it going?” He asked as he tried to plaster a fake smile onto his face. 

“I’m OK. What’s wrong? You seem to be preoccupied with something…”

Chenle fell silent as his gaze slipped down to the floor and settled on a rock which he nudged with his foot. Jisung sighed and fished in his inventory for a moment before pulling out a box of chocolates and handing it to the boy who stared at them with a blank look on his face before handing them back. “I cant accept these…” He whispered as his hands hung sadly by his side and he faced away from Jisung’s surprised looking avatar. 

“Why?” 

“Because… Because… Renjun told me about the things going on between you and Haechan hyung and Johnny hyung.” He replied “He told me I should get mixed up with you because you like to pretend to be interested in people and then you string them along so you can dump them…” 

He was taken aback as he took in the information but still pressed on with the conversation “I’ve not messed around with Haechan or Johnny! I think Renjun is just mistaken there!” Silently, Chenle held out a stack of photographs which Jisung flicked through quickly. They were in game photographs. Commemorative photographs which were taken and stored to commemorate certain milestones being reached with rivals. There was one of him tucked into Johnny’s side on the piano stool and another which showed him and Haechan soaked in the garden after a water balloon fight but hovering barely an inch apart from each other with gazes fixed on each other’s lips. He felt his face grow hot as he searched for any explanation “Well you see, I think Renjun may have gotten the wrong end of the stick because he doesn’t like me very much-“

“How is that any better? Renjun knows how I feel about you and there’s no way he’d tell me something like that just to be malicious! I trust Renjun more than anybody and I know if he’s telling me something like this it must be to protect me!”

Chenle moved as if to walk away but Jisung found himself lurching forwards to grab his wrist tightly until a voice came from behind them hissing “Enough.” As Renjun stalked over and pried his fingers from Chenle “I know what you’re up to and I’m not going to let him get wrapped up into your little game! If he said he doesn’t want your gift then you have no right to try and force him to take it.” With a final scathing look he pulled Chenle out of the courtyard and left Jisung alone to pull up his journal. The five hearts next to Chenle’s name had become black and petrified with the words “Return to First Heart Save Point?” displayed underneath it. 

With a sigh, he clicked yes and waited for the screen to load. 


	8. Diversion

“I know that you’re trying it on with Chenle… after everything you did with Johnny and Haechan before I don’t trust you one little bit.” Renjun said as he eyed Jisung warily. He waited for the dialogue to skip but was faced with a waiting screen which presented him with two choices: talk to him or ignore him. 

“I know that it wasn’t cool for me to string Johnny and Haechan along like I did, but still I need you to know that I wont do the same thing to Chenle because I feel differently about him than I did for the others. I know that the two of you are close and I just want you to give me a chance to prove that I’ll be good to Chenle!” 

Renjun cocked an eyebrow and left silently leaving Jisung to desperately steer his character out into the garden in anticipation for a repeat of the same scenario as before. Instead he was met with gentle music as he approached the young idol who sat on a bench, gently pulling the petals from a flower he had grasped in his hand until a gentle cough attracted his attention. “Oh! Jisung! How did you find the fansign today?”

“It was good, it was nice to talk to and see the fans that are gonna make this whole thing worth it. How did you find it?”

“It seemed like everyone had fun. Though none of the fans seem to like me in the same way that they like the others… some of them even just walked straight past me to go and greet the others!” He felt the return of the sad feeling in his gut as he listened to Chenle speak. “But it’s OK really! I know I’m not the best singer, or dancer, or visual-“

His character lurched forwards and seized the elder hands in his own with shining eyes “Don’t you doubt how much your worth in this group! Just because some rude people ignored you at the fan sign doesn’t mean you should give up or doubt yourself because I’m sure that they’ll come to see how great you are soon.”

Pink stained Chenle’s face as he averted his eyes from Jisung’s face and allowed a little smile to grace his face before he pulled back with a little grin on his lips, and as his character stood, Jisung could hear him quietly whispering “he loves me, he loves me not…” as he plucked the remaining petals away and let them flutter in the breeze. Flicking open the journal he allowed himself to smile as another two hearts had cropped up and were glowing right next to the little avatar of Chenle. With a little noise of confusion, he allowed himself to scroll further down the profiles to where nine glowing hearts sat next to Haechan’s name. 

It was probably another glitch that was mentioned in the manual. 

Upon lowering his journal, he let out a shriek as he found Haechan leaning in close to his face with a big grin on his lips and narrowed eyes that swam with some sort of emotion that Jisung couldn’t identify “You and Chenle seem close.” He said as he tilted his head “What’s that about?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! I meant to have this up days ago but I got dragged down to a cottage without wifi on the coast ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚ But yeah, chapters are coming!


	9. Glitch

“Uhhhh…”

“I’m just asking because I thought that we were getting closer to each other, but it seems that Chenle has managed to worm his way into your attentions like he does with everyone who’s interested in anyone other than him.” Haechan grinned as he leaned closer and pressed his nose to Jisung’s.

“That’s not-“

“Anyways, there’s a new movie that’s coming out today and I think you might like it – it’s got superheroes and that kind of stuff that I know you like Jisung. So how about we go watch it together? There’s a showing in half an hour-“

Jisung pulled away from him and rose to his feet quickly with a sheepish grin on his face “Actually Haechan, I’ve gotta go and practice for the next performance! I’m really sorry!” Quickly, he took off running and missed the dark expression that took over Haechan’s face. He moved quickly to seek out Chenle who was heading out of the dorms as he approached the smiling avatar with a light blush as he saw how Chenle’s smile seemed to grow when they engaged in conversation.

“Hey!” He said as he waited for younger’s response. Selecting the DATE option, he smiled slightly as Chenle’s face grew red and he looked away from his character with a little nod of his head as he grabbed his jacket, then let their fingers interlace as they headed out of the dorm door and smacked into something hard which had Jisung’s character falling back onto his butt. There was a sharp noise and as Jisung stood he opened his mouth to ask Chenle if he was OK but was met with the sight of Chenle grasping at his neck which flowed red around the knife that was lodged in his throat. His hands reached out to grasp onto something and with growing hysteria Jisung pulled him close and lowered him down to the floor as his body shook with the force of his sobs and the light faded from the elder’s eyes. 

Casting a glance up he was met with the smiling face of Haechan who leaned down right into his face to lick away the tears that streamed down his cheeks before pulling back to yank Chenle’s body from his arms “’Practice’ is boring Jisungie! Now that your schedule is all clear I think that that movie is sounding good right?”

The screen seemed to glitch slightly as he spoke then cut to black, leaving Jisung’s reflection on the TV screen with its stunned expression as the main menu of his console reloaded. Desperately he flicked through the games displayed on the screen, then pulled up his grid menu only to find that the little icon for DREAM BOYS!! had disappeared. He grabbed the box and shoved the disk back into the console then waited silently for the game to download. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you weren't expecting that!


	10. Dead End

The motions were repeated as they had been before – making friends with Renjun to get his approval, avoiding and checking up on Haechan who’s hearts remained at zero as he played and getting through the heart events as they cropped up. He was glad as Chenle’s hearts crept up slowly from two, to four to six and then to eight and when the time hit for his final heart event Jisung waited in anticipation for the event to trigger. 

He’d read that the event was meant to be helping Chenle to make traditional Chinese food to celebrate the new year and after the craziness of playing through his route, he was glad to finally have a nice sweet event to round off his experience with Chenle’s route. Unexpectedly, the music began as he walked out into the kitchen and found the elder idol sat against the cupboards with a letter clutched tightly in his hands. He slipped down next to him and waited for Chenle to acknowledge him though when it didn’t happen he decided to speak up. 

“Everything OK, Chenle?” 

“Yeah… I just got a strange letter from my brother back in China and I’m thinking that I might need to go home and check on things. It might be nice to see my mom again after so long and all… what do you think ‘Sung?”

He handed the letter over for him to read, and Jisung scanned its contents with a furrowed brow and a sinking feeling in his gut. The screen presented two choices: tell him to go or tell him not to worry. 

Tell him to go he selected.

Chenle nodded once and rose to his feet with a small smile “I’m sure that it’s nothing but you’re probably right, I’ll go pack and get the manager to take me to the airport so I can get the next flight out.”

With that he was gone and Jisung allowed himself to smile before rising to his feet and going to find Renjun to hang out with him for a while, which Renjun accepted with a little smile. The two painted in relative silence at the table as they heard Chenle and the manager leave, then after about an hour the door flew open again to reveal the tearful face of their other manager. 

“I-“ She broke down into sobs and collapsed onto the floor, leaving a confused Renjun and Jisung to try and comfort her “They’re dead…”

“What?”

“THEY’RE DEAD!” She wailed.

“Who?”

“Chenle and Manager Jung!”

Jisung felt a cold dread spread through his veins as he pulled away from her “What?” he asked. 

“There- there was a pile up on the way to airport… and by the time the ambulance got to them the both of them were dead!” 

There was a loud crash as Jisung threw his controller and it collided with the mirror causing it to shatter and fall from its frame, exposing the tear soaked face of the player who stared with empty eyes at the aftermath and selected ‘return to last save point’.


	11. Alternate Path

“Don’t go.” He pleaded with wide eyes “I’m sure that its nothing serious, and you have commitments to deal with here…” 

Chenle nodded but couldn’t drag his eyes away from the letter. Renjun walked into the kitchen and began to rummage in the fridge, pausing when Chenle called out to him and asked for his opinion on the matter. The elder scanned through the letter and Jisung felt the bile rising in his throat as he saw the look of concern on his face though Renjun looked at Jisung’s panicked pale face then handed the letter back with a little reassuring smile. “I’m sure that it’s nothing but if you want to check up on things then you can use my laptop to video call your mom.”

The younger smiled and accepted the offer and as Renjun took him through to the bedroom, Jisung felt the tight knot of panic unravel in his gut as the sound of the video call waiting to go through rang through the dorms as a reminder that he’s prevented Chenle’s fate again. There was a click as the call went through, followed by quiet talking then a shout of agony rang out loud and Jisung steered his avatar through to the bedroom where Renjun sat with a distraught Chenle in his arms. 

“What happened?” He asked.

The younger Chinese member threw himself into his arms and began to weep hysterically as his elder leaned over to whisper in his ear “We called his mother’s laptop and the police answered. Apparently, his brother left the car running in the garage with the door open and filled the house with carbon monoxide which suffocated everyone while they slept.”

Jisung set the scene to auto play and set the controller down on the floor so that he could curl into himself and try to will the tears that threatened to fall away. It was unfair, he thought as he snatched up the game box from the floor and opened it to read what the creators had written about Chenle, they were so cruel to continue to torment him at every turn of his route-

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door and he quickly tried to scrub the tears away as the door flew open to reveal a beaming Jaemin who brandished a bag then stopped at the sight of his friend with red eyes and tear stained cheeks. “You OK?” He asked carefully as he settled on Jisung’s bed “I got you another game since your mom said you liked that dating sim. Why are you crying?” 

He wiped at his eyes again and picked up the controller to save with a sad little smile on his face as Jaemin looked at the screen curiously “It’s nothing."


	12. Good Ending

Something was clearly wrong from the moment that the manager had roused them from their beds early in the morning and had summoned them to the living room where they’d been sat on the floor to listen. “I know this is going to be hard to hear, but after discussing this at length, Chenle has decided that he’s going to leave the group and return to China to sort out the affairs with his family’s funerals.” The manager explained quietly.

There was uproar for a moment before Taeyong shushed them “Is he going to come back after the funeral?” 

“No. His departure will be permanent and he wont be continuing any further activities with the company after he leaves the group.”

“When is he going to be leaving?” Renjun asked sadly.

“He’s heading to the airport in a few hours, so we thought it would be a good idea to say goodbye to him now as by the time you come back from schedules today, he’ll be gone.”

There was silence before they stood and headed into the bedroom one by one to wish Chenle well and exchange hugs that were tearful and lingering. Then it was his turn to say goodbye. Chenle wrapped his arms around Jisung and held him close with his head tucked into the crook of the younger’s neck. There were no words exchanged between the two, yet Jisung could feel the wet drip of tears on his skin as Chenle held him impossibly close. The two of them separated after a lingering moment and Chenle scrubbed his hands over his eyes with a sad little smile as he whispered a quiet “You were the best thing about being here.”

The music quieted briefly as Chenle leaned in close and pressed a little kiss to the edge of his lips with a genuine smile on his lips “Thank you for loving me,” He said quietly as he stroked the younger’s cheeks gently “I wont forget it. Ever.”

New music flooded from the speakers as his avatar pulled Chenle into a sweet kiss and the credits began to roll over the final image of him waving goodbye to his elder at the airport, leaving a stunned Jisung setting his controller down and pulling up another ending cut scene on his phone. The same music pulsed from the little speaker yet all Jisung could do was stare in disbelief then let out an angry “NO!” which had Jaemin rising sleepily from the bed behind him. 

“Are you still playing that?” He slurred “Did you even sleep?” The younger of the two snapped his head around and stared at his friend with wild eyes that had Jaemin slinking back down under the covers with a little huff “Well, if you’re not gonna sleep – the sequel to this one is in my bag. Apparently its got some of the same characters-“ Jisung tore through the packaging of the sequel and flicked through the booklet, straight to the bachelors page and began to pray as he read off the names: Johnny, Haechan, Jungwoo, Xiaojun, Winwin, Mark… But no Chenle.

He was distracted by a box that popped up on the screen stating: ‘Congratulations on reaching a good ending! Start new file?’

“There’s no way that that was his good ending!” He hissed as he threw his controller down and stared at the opening graphic of the boys smiling back, without Chenle.


	13. Additional Content

As it had turned out, the ending which he had received was in fact Chenle’s good ending. He’d learned it the hard way as he’d played through every combination of events and been met with only more death at the end of each path, except that which had given him the ‘good ending’. When he had set his controller down at the end of his playthrough he couldn’t help the swell of melancholy that rose in his chest, he couldn’t figure out how a developer could hate a character as sweet as Chenle so much as to face him with misfortune at every opportunity, and soon his melancholy turned to outright despair. 

His time became exclusively spent on Chenle – knowing him in ways that others didn’t, looking at art of him and watching others play his route with a swell of jealousy when he smiled at them with the same smile that he’d given him – to the detriment of his own health, his own commitments. 

After two weeks of despair his mother had deemed it to be enough and had removed the console from his bedroom before setting Jaemin on him to get him out of bed, yet not even Jaemin’s endless capacity for optimism could drag him from his bed. “Jisung.” He had said gently as he’d sat down on the bed one afternoon with a saddened look on his face as he saw the red rings around Jisung’s eyes “I’m sorry that I got you that game. If I hadn’t then you would be as down in the dumps as you are now…” 

Jisung shook his head and sat up slightly, grimacing at smell of his own body and the way it looked as he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the TV. “No hyung! If you hadn’t given me that game then I’d never have met Chenle and I wouldn’t know what true emotion is!” He proclaimed with a little smile.

Jaemin didn’t smile back at him but instead grimaced for a moment before reaching into his bag to pull out a stack of paper which he handed to Jisung. “I know that you were upset about how the game ended for him, so I had this made for you. I hope it’ll cheer you up slightly.” 

He quickly flicked through the pages, raising an eyebrow at the images of Chenle and his avatar sharing sweet kisses and eating ice creams. “Is this…?” He asked quietly though Jaemin just smiled and left the room silently, leaning against the door for a moment to listen to the sound of the pages turning.

“I hope that it’s the happy ending that you wanted for him, Jisung.” He muttered as he flashed Jisung’s mother a smile and left the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Announcement time! 
> 
> A little while ago, someone pointed out that I only write really short stuff (which is true) so my brain made into a challenge, and now I can announce that in the next few days (probably tomorrow) I will be releasing a story unlike anything I've done so far. It's called 'Numen' and that's all I'm gonna say about it, but I hope you'll anticipate it's arrival (๑꧆◡꧆๑)  
> Anyways, let me know what you thought of this chapter!


	14. Restart

Jisung’s mother had called him back barely days later when Jisung had been refusing to get out of bed in favour of lying there, reading and re reading the comic that he’d been gifted. He looked worse than he had days before with eyes surrounded by dark circles and greasy hair that flopped down into his eyes as he smiled at Jaemin. 

He’d resumed his position on the bed next to Jisung, wincing at how the comic was clutched to his chest as if he was afraid that his friend was going to take it away yet Jaemin only plastered on his smile. “So you liked it then?” He asked gently.

“Of course!” Jisung said as he scrambled to sit upright “Thank you so much for giving it to me!” 

“Well, I have another surprise for you if you do something for me!” Jisung narrowed his eyes slightly and tilted his head as an indication for Jaemin to continue “Well, the characters in the game are based on the real idols who voice them… and a little birdy told me that the cast of ‘DREAM BOYS’ is going to be at a convention in about a week. So I was thinking that if you take care of yourself for the time up until the convention, that we can go together and I’ll get tickets for the meet and greet so you can meet the idol who voiced Chenle.” 

He swore that if Jisung had a tail it would be wagging at a mile per minute as he bolted upright and scrambled from the bed to throw himself on top of Jaemin as he began to babble praises and quick “Thank you’s” that had Jaemin’s insides flooding with relief. “Like I said, you gotta take care of yourself Jisungie or else I’ll give the tickets to Jeno and he’ll take his friends.” 

The younger man frowned slightly “I am taking care of myself.” 

“Jisungie. You haven’t washed your hair, you’re barely eating and your mom said that you’ve not been to college since you got better because you’re not leaving your room. I’d hardly say that’s ‘taking care of yourself’.” Jisung began to protest but his elder held up a hand to silence him “No more arguing, go and wash your nasty hair or else I’ll take the tickets away!” 

He scrambled away quickly throwing a little glare over his shoulder as he muttered under his breath and for the first time Jaemin allowed himself to sit back and heave a sigh of relief as the shower turned on, pulling up the page on his phone he booked the meet and greet tickets for the convention and set it to the side to stand and call down the stairs, asking Jisung’s mother for some food and revelling in the happiness that was in her voice. 

Jisung could be stubborn for sure, but hopefully meeting this idol would help him to get back to normal.


	15. Voice Actor

True to his word Jisung looked after himself in the run up to the event and as he walked with Jaemin through the convention hall he looked the healthiest as he had in months, dressed up in an outfit that was probably too formal for the event but looking happy enough as they stood to wait in the line for the meet and greet. They’d passed through the ticket checks easily enough and Jaemin silently thanked every invisible deity for the fact that Jisung seemed to be acting normal enough all the way up to the table where the voice actors sat listening to the people in front of them as they asked their questions and took their pictures. 

He noted how his younger friend became progressively more quiet as they breezed through the queue and eventually stopped in front of a young man with blonde hair who smiled at Jisung as if they’d been friends forever. “Hey! I’m Zhong Chenle and I voice the character of Chenle! What’s your name?” 

Next to him, Jisung seemed to completely seize up, looking at the man in front of him with impossibly big eyes as his hands maintained a death grip on the stack of things he was holding. Jaemin nudged him slightly to try and draw him back into the scenario but tried to laugh it off after receiving a concerned look from Chenle “Sorry! Jisung here is a really big fan of yours! He bought all of your albums and listens to them religiously, he’s just a little star struck now that he’s finally got the chance to meet you… right Jisung?” He said as he rammed his friend in the ribs with his elbow which earned a noise of protest but seemed to bring Jisung back to reality as he set the stack of items down on the edge of the table then turned to the idol with a little smile.

“Yeah, sorry dude… I got a little overwhelmed for a minute there.” He let out a nervous laugh then gestured to the stack “I’m sorry that I brought so much stuff for you to sign but I just wanted to take the opportunity while it was there.” 

Chenle let out a soft laugh and accepted the stack with a touch that lingered for a second too long on Jisung’s hand which Jaemin used as his queue to go further down the line to talk to some of the other voice actors who had been neglected in favour of the younger’s obsession with Chenle. The rest of the crowd seemed to pass by quickly behind his back as his world narrowed down to the little Chinese idol who sat across from him and held his hand with care for a long moment before giving him his signed albums back and delivering a little wink as he whispered a quiet word about how there was a secret surprise inside one of his albums. 

Hurrying back to his seat, Jisung pulled open the albums searching through them until a little piece of paper fluttered to the floor showing a set of numbers. Glancing up he made eye contact with Chenle who shot him a little wink before turning back to the next fan, leaving Jisung’s heart pounding in his chest.


	16. Dialogue Option

Two weeks later, he found himself sat across from the familiar blonde as they nursed their cold hands on cups of coffee and spoke quietly as the sun began to slip down beyond the horizon. Jisung listened, enraptured, as Chenle began to tell him about the ins and outs of his life as an idol; pausing on occasion to ask a question to the boy who could only stare him with adoring eyes. The hours had slipped by, filled with laughter and happiness and when Chenle stood with the announcement that he had to leave to return before he got in trouble with his manager, Jisung felt something turn cold and hard inside of him as if Chenle were the sun at the centre of his universe and without him he’d die. Yet he allowed him to simply press a small kiss to the corner of his lips then leave with a quiet “Goodnight!”.

He could only stand there and stare after him for a moment then took off running after him until he reached him, settling into a slow paced walk beside Chenle who raised an eyebrow at his sudden appearance. “Let me walk you home?” He asked slightly breathlessly while trying to maintain his best smile. 

Chenle looked at him with shifty eyes but maintained his same sweet smile “I really shouldn’t… I don’t know if you’d just sell my address to crazy fans or something!” He joked, though Jisung could see the unease beginning to settle inside of him as he rubbed at the back of his neck absentmindedly. 

“Fair enough.” Jisung said as he raised a hand and turned to walk back home only to be stopped by a call in his direction.

“Well, I suppose you could walk me to the street then you could just leave before I go inside the building or something.” 

His soul soared at Chenle’s words and silently, they began their walk back to Chenle’s dorms with their hands seeking each other’s quietly in the dark and holding on tightly once they had found each other. Jisung felt a knot rise in his throat as he gripped the hand tighter and allowed himself to admire the side profile of Chenle in the streetlights knowing that the moment would be over as quickly as it had happened and feeling sick at the notion of it. “You look just like him.” He blurted. 

“I look like who?” 

“Your character! You know, in game Chenle.” 

A little laugh escaped his lips as he shook his head slightly “I should hope so! After all, I didn’t sit in a studio for hours taking pictures and posing for my character to not look like me!”

“I was sad when Chenle kept dying.” Jisung confessed as they rounded the corner “I felt like it was unfair that someone so happy and sweet had to die in such horrible ways every time…” His hand tightened around the elders as he tried to pull his hand away and quickly, he turned the blonde around to face him, barely registering the panicked expression on his face as he held his hands in a tight grip and heard the bones cracking from the force “You’re not going to die and leave again are you?” 

Chenle wrenched his hands away and looked at Jisung with a look of fear “I have to go now. My manager is going to be mad otherwise.”

“I can walk you the rest of the way-“

“No really, its fine.” He said firmly, hurrying away without letting Jisung say anything else. 


	17. Plot Twist

In the weeks following their date he received nothing but radio silence from Chenle despite the barrage of texts that he’d sent to the idol. Every attempt to text, phone, video chat with Chenle had gone unanswered and slowly Jisung felt him descend into deeper and deeper sadness replaying every detail of their date in excruciating detail to try to find any instance that could have turned Chenle away from him. After three weeks, he received a text and at the sound of the familiar tone he scrambled to open it finding a simple message: “We need to talk. Meet me at Bomb Beans in half an hour.” 

Hastily, he’d dressed and hurried to the coffee shop ordering an iced chocolate drink at the suggestion of the barista and taking up a seat at a table close to the door to wait for Chenle to appear. He did so after five minutes not bothering with going up to the counter and instead opting just to take a seat at the table with a pale face and wringing hands. “Hey!” Jisung breathed happily “I missed you. Have you been on tour? Or maybe you’re working on a new album or something-“ 

“Jisung.” He interrupted “I need to talk to you about something serious.”

“Oh?” 

Chenle’s eyebrows furrowed as he cast his eyes down to the table and fidgeted uncomfortably “I don’t think we should see each other anymore. In fact, I don’t think we should have any contact from this point on.” 

The younger froze with his drink raised halfway to his mouth as he digested the words that had come from the idols mouth. He lowered the cup and set it down on the table as he set his face into a blank mask to conceal his devastation from Chenle who had moved away from him slightly “Oh. Alright. Did I do something to upset you?”

“It’s just… you scare me Jisung.” He stood awkwardly and tried to smile at Jisung without looking frightened “I’m happy that I got to meet someone who is such a sincere fan, but I think its for the best that we don’t carry this on any further.” He nodded robotically and watched as he left the coffee shop allowing the cold empty feeling to spread through his body. Calmly, he stood from the table and stalked out of the shop looking for Chenle’s retreating figure in the dark, empty streets the following as he turned the corner onto a side street that they had walked together weeks before as a shortcut. His hand reached out as he followed silently and seized something that weighed heavily in his palm as he hurried close to Chenle and called out a little “Hey.” To catch his attention before swinging the object down and relishing in the crunching sound as the blonde’s body slumped down onto the ground with a strange stunned expression and a blooming redness from the side of his head which left his blonde hair matted in clumps. 

He seized his hands, dragging him along the pavement with a little huff of annoyance “I asked you not to leave again. You never listen!” 


	18. Boss Battle

He pushed the spoon to the elder lips with a sigh as it clinked against the resistance of teeth which formed a solid blockage from Chenle’s mouth. “Lele. Please stop fighting me on this!” he chided gently as he pressed the spoon forward again and was met with the familiar clink of teeth against the metal “If you don’t let me feed you then you’re going to starve to death, and we wouldn’t want that now, would we?”.

He gazed into the pale face of the idol who sat cuffed to the chair across from him. Of course he was being stubborn, Jisung realised, it would take a long time for him to get used to the idea that he needed to be protected to live a happy life but no amount of resistance from the idol would deter him from his goal which shone more brightly in his mind than ever before as Chenle sat in front of him; stiff and cold. Leaning down, he adjusted the blanket with had slipped down from his shoulders to ensure that it was appropriately draped over his body before he pressed a little kiss to the cooled skin and turned back to his console where the game sat open, waiting for him to make dialogue choices. A knock at the door had him setting the controller down with a sigh as he spared a regretful glance to the idol who had slumped slightly in his chair and opened the door a crack to peek out into the hall, seeing the angry, pale face of Jaemin there before the door flew open and he stormed inside. 

There was a gasp as Jaemin took in the slumped figure in the chair and rushed over to examine him, annoying Jisung as the bowl of soup spilled across the floor in an ugly red splash. Fingers were pressed to Chenle’s neck and Jisung had to hold in the growl of annoyance that radiated from his throat. 

“What did you do?” Jaemin hissed as he seized Jisung’s collar and shook him slightly. The younger stared back with a blank expression. “I knew the minute that they said he’d gone missing that you must have had something to do with it!” 

“Its not my fault. We got in an argument and I just hit him! I didn’t mean to hit him! You know I’d never want to do anything to hurt him!”

Jaemin stared at him with disbelief “I knew it was a bad idea to take you to see him… Yet I thought that you would be fine and that you’d get over your strange obsession with him!”

“I don’t know what to do…” Jisung began to wail and with a look of pity Jaemin sank down to his knees and wrapped a protective arm around his friends shaking body. “It’ll be alright. We’ll get him out of here and take him somewhere where no one will ever find him-“ Jisung felt something pinch inside of his chest as his hand crept across the floor to seize the bowl which lay discarded on the carpet “-Then we’ll get you some help and everything will be back to normal.” 

“Normal?” He whispered as he looked up into Jaemin’s face and swung the bowl down so that it collided with the side of his head, sending Jaemin reeling back onto the carpet with a crash as Jisung rose to stand over him. Seizing a trophy from his desk, he rose it above his head and swung pausing momentarily to listen to the shouts of his mother from downstairs. 

“Sungie? Are you OK up there?” 

“Yeah Mom. I just dropped my bowl of soup.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, its my first week at uni so things are really backed up at the minute. More chapters will follow hopefully.


	19. Progress

He cringed slightly as he stared into the face of his scowling professor “Jisung, your absence has been a lot longer than your email stated. I’m beginning to worry that you’re going to fall too far behind on your final project and that you wont be able to finish it before the dealine.”

“It’ll be fine Professor Kim,” He insisted “That’s actually why I suggested this meeting. Jaemin came by a few days ago and told me that you wanted to hear my idea of my final project… so here it is.” He slid the rolled up paper across the desk and watched intently as his professor’s face transitioned through different expressions. 

“It’s very ambitious, Jisung. Are you sure that you’ll be able to make it?” 

“I’m very sure Professor. I put a lot of thought into it, and thought about what its function would be before bringing my plan here to you.” 

With a slight nod, the older man sank back against his chair. “Alright, thank you for showing me this. I’ll check back in with you in a few weeks to check on your progress, and I expect it to be significant if you don’t want to fall behind.” 

Jisung nodded slightly with a big grin as he rose from the chair and recollected his plan from the desk with shaking hands. The journey home was short enough and as he fell back breathing heavily against the door he felt a stab of pride in his gut – until it was interrupted by the muffled shouting of Jaemin who trashed violently against his restraints. The younger paid him no mind as he moved to crouch in front of Chenle – who was still being as stubborn, not moving since the soup fiasco – “I did it Lele! I can give us our happy ending now!” He pressed a kiss to the cold, slightly shrivelled feeling lips and beamed as he pulled back “I’ll have to figure out how to get you both out of here and then I can start work. I know it’ll hurt a little baby, but just think after this we’ll always be together in more ways than one…” 

Another shout broke him from his stupor and with furious eyes he turned to backhand Jaemin around the cheek before leaning down to whisper gently into his ear “Your place is free isn’t it? No one’s gonna disturb us there?” 

A nod. 

“Good.” 

Pulling back, he trotted off downstairs to collect a few items into a bag attracting the attention of his mother in the process who watched him pulling out knives with a raised eyebrow. He kept the smile plastered onto his face as he moved to the fridge and started pulling out random vegetables “Sorry, I forgot to tell you… I’m going over to Jaemin’s flat and I’m gonna make him something to eat. He;s been living like a hobo for a while so I figured it would be nice for us to spend some time together with a home cooked meal.” 

She only pinched his cheek and stared at him fondly. “You’re a good kid Jisung.” She mused quietly as he took off running upstairs again.


	20. Loading...

He let out a sigh as he drummed his fingers on the keyboard burning with anticipation as the loading bar crept across the screen slowly. “Can you stop doing that?” Came a hoarse voice from behind him and with narrowed eyes he turned slightly to face Jaemin who looked irritated in the dim light of the apartment.

“Well excuse me. It’s a little time sensitive so I think its warranted that I’m a little bit impatient.”

A moment of silence stretched between them as Jaemin tried to avoid looking at the wet mess on the table, hooked up to a little machine that was plugged into the side of Jisung’s laptop. “What is that?” He asked quietly as he watched the machine work on the mass. 

“It’s a special device. It’s still experimental and very expensive but its had mostly success so I figured that the best way to move forwards with my project is to use it on him.” Jaemin cast a wary glance to the slumped figure in the chair next to him, long unchained from the chair but still sitting there slumped with blank eyes. His mouth opened as if to ask the younger more questions but he was met with a shake of the head instead “I was too late to help him physically, I know I should have checked on him long before I did which is my fault and is something I’ll never forgive myself for but I can keep him here with me now using this.” 

“It’s not what he would have wanted-“ Jaemin squeaked as Jisung moved from his chair to grab him firmly by his jaw.

“You never even met him! I know that more than anything Chenle loved me and that he’d never forget that he felt that way, I also know that he deserved to be happy more than anything else in this world. This way there’s no way that he’ll feel hurt or feel sadness again and I can make sure that he had everything that he’ll ever need.” A beep had the younger man moving away to settle back at the desk with an affectionate stroke to the spongy organ on his desk. With a tap of a few keys a little window popped up and Jisung stared at it for briefly before clearing his throat and speaking “Uh, hi? Do you know who I am?” 

The programme stayed silent for a moment and Jaemin could feel a sick sensation clawing at his throat as the screen flashed green and responded “Yes, you’re Jisung. We met at a panel for a game I did voice acting in, we went out a few times.” 

Heaving a sigh, Jisung slumped back in his chair to listen as the voice continued to blabber on mindlessly. 

“Is that-“ 

“I’m so happy you’re back with me now Chenle…” He sighed as he picked up the brain and gently placed it back into a jar of fluid that had been waiting “I’m so happy to hear your voice again.” 


	21. New Material

“’Sung I’m hungry!” Came a little whine from the desk which the younger turned away from to continue working on the structure in front of him. Chenle had been nagging to eat for over an hour and slowly, Jisung could feel his annoyance beginning to grow at the incessant whining that blurted out from the little machine every once in a while. He’d had to put up with Jaemin’s rebellions all day and the constant drone of Chenle from the machine was doing nothing to help the situation.

“Jisung! I’m-“ 

Something in him snapped as he whipped around and seized the box to shake it slightly “You’re hungry! I know! But you cant eat at the moment and there’s nothing I can do about it if you wont stop annoying me constantly!” 

The air around them seemed to tense as the box fell silent then whispered a quiet “Sorry…” before shutting off completely.

“Chenle” He said as he stroked the top of the box in a soothing motion, as if it would serve as any consolation to the annoyed idol “Chenle, I’m sorry that I yelled at you – I really shouldn’t have done that…”

“All you ever do is yell at me.” 

“I know! I know – I’m just trying to get things moving along faster so that you can do all the things you could do before and I just get so wrapped up in it sometimes that I forget that you have needs too!”

They lapsed into silence for a moment. “Jisung,” Came the little voice again, sounding unsure and afraid as it spoke and sounding more unlike Chenle than it ever had before “What do you mean? When you tell me that I cant do the things I could before… and that you’re trying to fix me?”

Jisung swallowed thickly as he set the box down and crouched to ensure that Jaemin was hidden behind him as he looked into the little camera. “You had a little accident when we went out for coffee that last night you remember seeing me… and now your body wont be able to move in the same way it could before. I’m trying to come up with some way to allow you to do all the things you could before, so you can be happy and I can be happy seeing you happy.” When the silence stretched again he stood, watching how the camera followed him as he touched the stack of materials piled on the chair next to his desk feeling silky and soft underneath his fingertips “I know that you’re frustrated and confused at the moment but I promise I’ll do everything I can to make you happy, and when I’m done it’ll be like nothing changed at all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay!


	22. Data Wipe

“Are you ready?” He whispered to the little box that rested in his palm, covered by his palm in an attempt to cover Chenle’s ‘eyes’. There was no response but the gentle thrum against his skin had his skin crawling with anticipation “I have to turn this off for a moment but then you’ll wake up again and everything will be perfect!”

Setting it down, he slipped a little chip from the back and repressed the wave of sickness at the thought that Chenle was gone again, even if it was only for a short time. It was inserted into a little slot on the contraption with shaking hands and for a moment a loud piercing beep rang out of it causing the men to flinch slightly as it began to twitch. The fingers moved first, little more than a twitch to begin with but eventually flexing and retracting with a strange curiosity as Jisung knelt in front of it. “’Le? How are you feeling?” He asked softly as he ran his fingers over the surfaces of its form and lingered there before cupping its face. 

It blinked at him with blank eyes “I’m feeling fine…? A little tired and dizzy, but fine I think.” The contraption dragged its fingers over its skin but maintained a puzzled gaze at Jisung “I’m sorry, do we know each other?” 

He let out a breath that he hadn’t been aware he was holding, feeling a strange twist of sadness in his gut with light-headedness and glee that he hadn’t thought was possible. “Yeah… yeah, we’re dating. It’s OK if you don’t remember though, the doctor said that you might be suffering from amnesia after the trauma you went through and coming out of the coma so unexpectedly-“

“Coma?”

“Yeah baby, you’ve been in a coma for over six months. We thought that you were gonna stay asleep forever, but you’re strong! Even after everything that happened you still pulled through and you’re stronger than ever.” 

He glanced to the side, recoiling at the sight of a ragged looking Jaemin who watched him with equal morbid fascination and horror. “Why is he tied to the chair?” He asked as he pulled away from Jisung and scrambled to undo the restraints, finding his fingers awkward and clumsy and unable to bend the way that he wanted them to. 

Jisung could only watch the sight with a cool indifference, leaning against the edge of the table as he spoke “I wouldn’t do that.” 

“Why not?” 

“Well, he’s tied to the chair because he was the one who put you in the coma, baby.” 

His brow creased for a moment as his eyes screwed shut. It was a cute sight, Jisung thought, but there was no way that he would be able to know any different from what he was being told. “I… don’t know what happened – but this doesn’t seem right! You cant blame him for an accident that I had that put me in a coma!” 

With a little sigh, Jisung moved forwards and gathered him into his arms, stroking the smooth material of his back as he spoke “He was jealous baby, and when he was walking you back from work one night he lost it and hit you around the head which almost killed you…” He pulled back to stare into his eyes “I know it must be scary to not know anything, but everything is the way it is because I’m trying to do whats best for you. OK?”

Chenle could only nod, accepting Jisung's kiss with hesitation.


	23. Difficulty Setting

The light of the morning streamed through the windows, and Jisung allowed a little smile to grace his features as he reached across the bed to where Chenle should have been powered down into ‘sleep’ next to him, finding only empty space instead that sent a wave of red hot panic down his throat as he scrambled out into the hall blindly. He opened his mouth to begin calling out for his love, but paused with a little sigh of relief when he saw him pottering around with a cloth. “Jisung!” He greeted warmly “I hope that you don’t mind, I woke up super early and I thought that it might be a good idea to clean up a little bit, since this place is kind of a mess and all.” 

A small smile graced Jisung’s features as he approached Chenle and pressed a little kiss to his forehead, earning an uncomfortable giggle in return. He pulled back to stare at his partner for a moment with furrowed brows. “I’m sorry, I’m just not used to you doing that… I guess that you did that kind of stuff since we were dating before the accident, but I’d appreciate it if we could just… go slow for a while?” Chenle asked sweetly “Is that OK?” 

“Of course.” Jisung agreed as he tried to suppress the twitch of annoyance in his brow “I’ll let you carry on for a while then, and I can give Jaemin here a bath then we can have brunch or something if you want to?” 

The two shared a look at Jaemin, looking tired and filthy in his chair “That sounds great. Though you could just let him out now? Since I’m fine and all…” 

“Not going to happen, my love!”

With a lingering finality, he set about untying Jaemin then seized his arm firmly to drag him through to the bathroom. The door closed and with it the atmosphere changed immediately. Jisung’s face became darker, clouded with something that bubbled ominously under the surface and warned Jaemin well enough that any funny business wouldn’t be tolerated. “You’re fully capable of washing yourself and stuff, so you can do that and I’ll just wait here for you.” Came the younger’s cool voice over the sound of the running water. There was a quiet moment between them, punctuated by the steady stream of water as it poured out of the taps and settled around the elder’s body. “Are you going to tell him?” He asked quietly.

“Tell him what?” 

“That he’s not real anymore? That you had to throw his body away and put him into something else because you did a really bad thing?” 

A thin smile crossed his face “Why would I do that? He would only hate me then. And if he hates me then what would be the point in any of this? You, me, him… our existence all depend on his love. So perhaps it would be best if you keep your mouth shut, and let us be happy for once alright? After all, you were the one that started this.”


	24. Spoiler

Jisung had left the two of them alone earlier in the morning with the promise that he’d be back with food once his work at university was completed, and with every passing second Chenle wished that he would come back sooner. The figure of Jaemin cramped into the armchair was an unrelenting presence, following him as he pottered around the apartment and contemplated hiding out of sight to just get that unwavering gaze away from him. He tried to avert his eyes as much as possible, though the feeling of unease as he took in the dark ring around his neck and the red lines of blood around his wrists still set him on edge. 

It barely took two hours for him to crack, shuffling quietly through to the lounge and setting about untying Jaemin’s hands and feet with a wary look, as if he was mentally prepared for Jisung’s wrath without having the experience of it. Turning away quickly, he set about tiding a stack of papers “You should go while you’re able to, or else he might do something really bad to you.” 

Jaemin paused again his words, eyeing up the gentle shaking in his shoulder with a furrowed brow before the realisation clicked into place “You remember everything that happened the last night you remember before waking up, don’t you?” 

A solitary nod informed him of everything he needed to know. 

“So why don’t you run away from him? You’ve seen that he’s capable of hurting you, even if he says that he loves you. Plus, if you ever let slip that you remember about what happened then you know that he would be afraid to shut you down again-“ 

“Shut me…down?” Chenle asked as he turned with a strangely dark expression. 

Jaemin felt a shiver go down his spine “I meant that he’d kill you again.” 

“Again?” Came another whisper “what do you mean again? How can he kill me again? I’ve not been dead before-“ The idol paused for a moment, flexing his fingers then rushing through to the kitchen to seize a knife, plunging it into his own hand with not even a wince to show for it, yet the screaming began as he pulled at his ‘flesh’ expecting to see an oozing mess of bloody pulp lying under the flap, yet finding nothing but a dark tangle of wires sitting there innocuously, coloured red in imitation of blood vessels. Jaemin edged closer in an attempt to comfort the shaking android but found his hands slapped away quickly as he curled into himself. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything to you at all - I’ll go back to the chair and we can just pretend that none of this ever happened, yeah?” 

“Go away. You don’t belong here.” Came a hollow voice, and with one last lingering look at the figure of Jisung’s obsession, he scrambled out of the door and into the bustling streets, skin tingling with dread as he wondered what was to come. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry it’s taken so long to update, but hopefully, the resolution to this story should come at some point this week along with some other fun little things before jumping into the next longer chartered work. 
> 
> I met someone who reads my fics and they mentioned that they wished there was some way to interact outside of archive. So if that’s something you want to do, feel free to hit me up on Instagram, my username is blossom_tb and it would be nice to get to know some of you if you’d like!
> 
> Anyways, I hope you liked this, and see you soon!


	25. Deathmatch

“Lele I’m home! I brought food from the Chinese restaurant you like, but I didn’t know what you’d want so I just got you a bunch of stuff-“ Jisung felt the words die in his throat as he noticed that that the armchair sat empty with the bindings lying slack at the sides of it. Throwing the bag down on the sofa, he seized a letter opener from the side table and began to head through the apartment slowly, keeping his eyes focused and trying to quiet the pounding of his heart in his ears as he began to fear for the worst. If Jaemin was free then that could only mean bad things were coming, if Jaemin was free then Chenle was in danger. 

He edged his way into the bedroom, letting out a sigh of relief as he saw Chenle sitting there staring at a picture of the two of them on the bed side table with an unreadable expression. Approaching quickly, he sank to his knees in front of the android and brushed a hand over his cheeks as if to check that there was no damage to his perfect creation before he spoke. “Did Jaemin hurt you in some way? Do you know where he is?”

“I don’t know where he is, he left pretty soon after I loosened the ties.” Jisung reeled back for a moment before his expression hardened slightly though his attempt to speak was cut off as quickly as it had been attempted “He didn’t hurt me, or threaten me. Not that he would have needed to, it seems like you’ve been doing that enough for all of us.” 

His movements were a flurry, and with a glint of sharp silver Jisung found himself throwing himself backwards to get away from the furious slashing that the furious android laid onto him. Chenle was screaming at him, with unintelligible words that blended into a loud frenzy of anger and pain, punctuated with the sound of his knife burying itself into the floorboards next to his head. His leg flew out to kick at the androids ankles with as much force as he could muster, sweeping him down onto the floor and bringing the knife down too as the two began to struggle against each other – Jisung fumbling at his hairline to find the little button that would end the madness and bring his Lele back from whatever defect had infected his software, and Chenle struggling against his hold with one hand reaching aimlessly towards the knife that sat slightly out of reach. 

His eyes fell onto another shape, closer than the knife and with a surge of strength he found himself grasping it, rolling just far enough to be in the position to thrust it through fragile skin and relish in the wet noises and spasming body of his boyfriend as he collapsed onto the floor with hands trying to keep his wounded neck together. Wheezing, he tried to plead with the android who sat there with dead eyes, watching as his killer grew weaker with a little smile, and as his vision began to fade he couldn’t help his mind from flashing with the though that Chenle was still the most beautiful creature he’d seen even when he was tainted and ruined. 

With red dripping from his fingers as he sought out the android’s hand, Jisung felt his vision give out with a last stuttering breath. 


	26. True Ending

Blowing out a heavy sigh, Jisung allowed himself to collapse back against the end of the bed, tilting his head back to look at the figure that was lounging above him on the bed. “So what do you think overall?” He asked as a hand reached to ruffle Jisung’s hair. 

“Honestly?” He asked as he chewed at the inside of his cheek “Well, I think that it went off the rails very fast, and if that’s the ending I received with what seemed like the most rational choices, then perhaps the system is too easily influenced to produce bad endings?” 

The boy nodded slightly, beginning to jot down some notes onto a pad in his lap. “And what about the game play in general? How did you find it?” 

“The voice acting was good, especially yours” he paused to relish in the blush that painted itself across the elder’s cheeks at his praise “the graphics are a little clunky in some places, but overall everything else seems to work well enough for me.” There was a long minute of silence, punctuated by the gentle scribbling of pen on paper before the pad was set down on the bed and the figure leaned forwards to press a gentle kiss against his forehead, then allowed their heads to rest against each other in a brief moment of tenderness before the shrill noise of the phone broke them out of their stupor. 

Jisung browsed through the menu while his elder spoke quietly into his phone, and when he grew bored his attention was turned to the little manual he’d been given with the game, advertising that the game could have vampires, Androids, murder or anything in it depending on the choices you made. He tapped the pen against the little booklet as the young man finished his conversation and turned back to his friend, though he was cut off by Jisung speaking first “There’s a couple of spelling mistakes in the booklet, and I wouldn’t give so many spoilers… the murder and androids and stuff would be way more interesting if they weren’t spoiled in the booklet.” With a sense of finality he pressed the box into his boyfriend’s hands and a kiss to his lips before shooting him away “Oh, and Chenle!” He called “bring me something that’s not a dating sim next time, you know having to play through all the endings makes me a little crazy by the end of it.” 

The only response was a little laugh as footsteps retreated down the stairs, and as Jisung watched Chenle duck into a car with a little wave he allowed himself to sigh with contentment. His happy ending was way better than some stupid game, even if he’d had to endure so much for it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Dia! I hear you say, Why dont you finish one of the fics you've started instead of staring something new?
> 
> To that I say - because this has been bugging me all day. I've been playing a ridiculous amount of dating sims since I've been sick and thus this was born as the second baby in the 500 words per chapter club. Will this be sweet and cute and pure? No - of course not! 
> 
> Let me know what you think so far!


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